UFC gives Vancouver until end of business today
Organizers of the Ultimate Fighting Championship have given the City of Vancouver until the end of business today to sort…
Organizers of the Ultimate Fighting Championship have given the City of Vancouver until the end of business today to sort out problems that jeopardize a pay-per-view mixed martial arts event at GM Place on June 12.
Despite reports that the event has already been cancelled, Marc Ratner, vice-president of regulatory affairs at the UFC, said it can still go ahead if city officials sort out insurance and liability issues by late today.
“Our demise was greatly exaggerated,” Ratner said Tuesday from Montreal, where he was preparing for the UFC 113 event scheduled to take place there on April 8, “but we have 24 hours.”
Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang, however, held out little hope the problems can be resolved in such a short time frame.
How to indemnify the city against the possibility of being sued by an injured participant or spectator has been the subject of long-running debate.
“The insurance companies are concerned that we’re talking about what is in fact an illegal activity according to federal law,” Jang said.
“This is why Ontario hasn’t allowed it. We were told by [federal Heritage and Culture Minister] James Moore that the law would be changed, but that hasn’t happened yet. The B.C. attorney-general [Mike de Jong] sent us a letter in December waving his pompoms saying, ‘Yea, UFC,’ but they haven’t addressed this issue, they’ve just thrown it back at us.”
Asked what piece of the puzzle would need to fall into place in order for the event to go ahead, Jang said, “The provincial government would need to step up and provide indemnification, and we need assurances that an insurance claim would not be denied because of this outdated piece of [the] Criminal Code.”